Veronika Decides to Die – Paulo Coelho

 

The book begins with veronika deciding to die and ends with she living life the way it should be lived – as if there is no tomorrow.

In this book paulo coelho talks about about madness and death (or life). Veronika, a young woman of 24 who has everything going for her decides to end her life by consuming sleeping pills as she is bored of routine and wants to end it when she is young. But, her attempt is unsuccessful and she ends in Villete, one of the premier mental institutions of her city. Though, she is unsuccessful in her attempt, she is told that she won’t survive for long. The clear certainty of death combined with a new world full of mad people changes her life tremendously. Her perception about life changes. Paulo Coelho has nicely mixed philosophy, spirituality and fiction. The other central characters are zedka, suffering from depression, Mari, suffering from panic attacks, Eduard, a schizophrenic and Dr. Igor who heads Villete.

Dr.Igor’s talks with his patients as well his thoughts about madness have been captured very well. He tries to prove that every human is affected by a disease called vitriol or bitterness. The discussions about how collective madness is sanity is also very good.

But, what is irritating is the extremely sugary ending. It appears as if it has been taken from a bollywood movie. But, apart from the ending this is an excellent work by paulo coelho.

Awareness of life can be brought about by an awareness of life – This is the central theme. Paulo Coelho achieves in projecting the point very clearly through his story. Though every single person is aware of the fact that he is going to die, people live as though life is eternal. They forget to enjoy their lives being caught either in the past or in the future. Veronika when faced with certain death, starts realizing that every moment of life is an active choice that you make.

A book worth reading if you are a paulo coelho fan and likes fiction with a dash of philosophy and spirituality.